Los Alamos Lab Up for Bid

LANL Bid Schedule
Timeline and Current Details of the competition

List of Potential Bidders
From DOE Albuquerque's Contracting Office

University of California
and the development of WMDs

Los Alamos Study Group
A comprehensive and authoritative source of information on the Los Alamos National Laboratory

Los Alamos Laboratory up for bid: A Primer

The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is a GOCO (Government Owned, Contractor Operated) facility owned by the Department of Energy and operated by the University of California.

The University of California has held the contract since 1943 when the laboratory was first established. The most recent contract renewal between the DOE and UC was signed in January of 2001, just before the Bush administration took office. The contract has been held by the UC for 61 years without competition.

According to the DOE's report (McSlarrow & Brooks) security lapses in the late 1990's were not adequately addressed by lab administrators. The corrective measures drawn out in Appendix O of the January, 2001 UC-DOE contract for LANL failed to solve the root problems of mismanagement because according to the DOE;

"The Federal oversight role was limited to a mechanistic review of performance as set forth in the contract when, in fact, a broader, more aggressive role was called for, particularly in light of problems that developed at Los Alamos in the late 1990s."

Security lapses at LANL during this time period included the Wen Ho Lee case, multiple disappearances of keys, widespread theft and misuse of government credit cards, failures to repel mock terrorist attacks, among others.

DOE Secretary Abraham's memo on opening the contract Upon reviewing the McSlarrow & Brooks report DOE Secretary Abraham wrote back to the NNSA (National Nuclear Security Administration) on April 29th, 2003 saying that, "given [the] responsibility and the widespread nature of the problems uncovered at Los Alamos, I intend to open management of Los Alamos to full competition when the current contract expires."

Abraham's decision was made public on April 30, 2003 in a press release stating, "DOE intends to compete Los Alamos National Laboratory management and operations contract upon completion of current University of California contract in 2005."

Click here to read the timeframe and current details for lab competition